The gorgeous personalized children’s book above is by Sarah of Party Perfect. She used objects familiar to her baby to help teach first words. Ever since I saw it, I’ve been thinking about how nice it would be to make a photo book specifically for Hank.
I wanted an idea that would have the maximum impact if it was personalized. Because Hank seems intrigued by feelings lately, I decided to go with that. I’d really like him to learn early on how to identify his emotions and then do something constructive with them, and he already loves to talk about how his toys are “so happy” or “really cross” (thanks Thomas the Tank Engine).
I love the end result. Here are some examples of what I put together:
Shutterfly bought some ads on Mighty Girl, and they let me try their photobook service to lay out my book and print it. It actually ended up taking more time to choose the photos than to make the book. If you’d like to try it yourself, Shutterfly is offering codes to twelve Mighty Girl readers to let them print books for free. You can enter the drawing by leaving a comment about what you’d like to make.
The contest will run through August 24, and I’ll announce winners here. One entry per person please, I’ll have to delete duplicates for fairness. Good luck!
Mighty Girl 
I would love to make our wedding album like this. Especially since we did it all on the cheap (put together with spit and duct tape as I liked to say) to begin with!
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Love love love! This idea has sparked so many more!
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I would definitely make a book about the adventures and dreams of Ozzie and Luna, my pups.
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My best friend and I have known each other for 23 years, and she’s getting married in a few months. I’d love to recap our friendship in pictures as a special gift. I doubt she could forget the times we charged our parents money to come see the plays we’d written (read: improvised, badly) or how she looked when she broke her nose and had to play softball wearing a hockey mask, or how awesomely we rocked the tied-up t-shirts and tube socks in the early 90’s… but just in case, it’d be super cool to have a visual reminder.
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I would make a book for my brother’s upcoming wedding. Pick me 🙂
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We live hundreds of miles away from both sides of our family, so I would make a book with pictures of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins that we only see once or twice a year for my younger children (5 and 2) to help them remember everyone.
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Oh, I’d love to finally do something with my wedding photos and make a book with them.
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I just got married on the beach and the awesome photographer gave us the disk with all of our pictures- I’d love to make up our wedding album!
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oh, it would be fun to make a counting book!
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I would make a book of old family photos. I’d like it to be the same format with the old picture corners, but without falling apart.
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Books! We love books! We can do it!
(Your feelings book is such a fantastic idea– it will be hard not to just copy your idea. 🙂 )
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I would like to make a book for my brother of photos I’ve collected of us as children. Our parents died when I was 11 (dad) and 12 (mom), and my siblings and myself were raised in separate states and on separate sides of the family.
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I am co-director of a rescue group and I’d love to make one about our foster dogs past and present–how they come into our program all dirty and lonely and end up with great families.
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I’ll make a book about my son and his buddy Dominic. They’ve been friends since they were 3 and 1 1/2 and they go camping together every summer. At the ripe old ages of 9 and 7 they have loads of memories together.
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I’d do a book about my daughter’s first year (she turns 1 on 15 Sept)…such fun!
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I LOVE Shutterfly books! I’d love to make a book for my son to help him learn to read using all of his favorite things around the house. The words would be spelled out using Scrabble letters (a great idea I picked up in a magazine somewhere). I’ve already started a list of familiar words for him.
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I would make a book about a recent trip to the Natural History Museum. Or make a book of my friend’s 4 yr old daughter’s artwork. She can give it to her parents and ditch the originals (there are hundreds of pages of her artwork – on walls, frigs, in binders, etc…).
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about two years ago i made a drawing a day for 100 days. during that time, my father died… and i just kept drawing. i posted the images daily on flickr. i’ve always wanted to have the drawings in book form.
so that’s what i’d make.
cheers!
samantha
p.s. here are the drawings, in case anyone wants a peek: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwelldeep/sets/72157600456414357/
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My 7 year old said, “I would take lots of pictures of my family and friends so I can remember what life was like this summer.” Oh, and his friend Troy who he is on the outs with? He would have a black page with frowny faces on it.
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Maggie that book is beautiful, both in sentiment and design. I would love to make a book for my nearly five year old explaining/reassuring that the one year old is not usurping her place in Mommy and Daddy’s hearts. Little sibling rivalry going on right now.
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I would definitely make a family recipe book–all of my mother’s recipes (from her mother, grandmother, etc.) are scribbled in a falling apart volume of “The American Woman’s Cook Book,” and while I love it, I know it’ll disintegrate in the not so distant future, and I’d love to have a beautiful hardcopy.
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I would love to make a Shutterfly book chronicling the first year of my son’s life.
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We live far away from all of our family and I’d like to make a photo book of all of my son’s relatives so we can have an easy and collective way to teach him everyone’s names. What a great giveaway!
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A plan is now in the works for my husband and I to have our first weekend away together since our daughter was born (she’s 21 months)! I would love to make a her book of all the people and things she loves and that make her smile, to keep with her while she has her first sleepover at Nana’s.
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I would like to make a photo book for my new born son about his Grandmother (my mom) who passed away before he was born.
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I would love to make a book for my unborn child about his/her big brother’s excitement and help in preparing for his/her arrival.
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Such a fantastic book you have made! If I win, I will have my daughter help me make a fantasy book. Mixed media, here we come.
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I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile now – it’s such a great idea! Everyone on my side of the family lives far away, and I would love to do an alphabet book with pictures of them so he might recognize them when he does see them. A = Grandma holding an apple, B = Aunt Sara bouncing a ball, etc.
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I’d make one about my anniversary trip to Hawai’i with my partner. This was last fall and I still haven’t sent out photos to relatives, and this would be the perfect way to make a gorgeous keepsake to share for years to come.
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I love the book for Hank and would love to make one of my own with my eight year old!
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New baby on the way in a matter of weeks…a book about siblings would be great.
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I love this idea! I’m an early childhood teacher, and children often have a hard time putting names to their emotions, so this is amazing!
I’d love to make a book about my upcoming wedding. (9 days! Ahhh!) My fiance is from New Zealand, and we are getting married in Canada, so it would be a great thing to share with his family.
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What fun! Your book looks lovely! 🙂 I’ll be trying it!
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I’d make an album about my hometown as good memories for when I move away.
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This is a brilliant idea. I teach kindergarten and would love to make a book with things around school that the kids recognize and follow up with a word wall in the classroom.
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I love the idea of a book for my son’s upcoming 1st birthday, though we never did put together a wedding album from four years ago, so maybe winning would be a sign that I should buckle down and do it already.
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I’d love to make a photobook of pictures of my wedding for my mom. She designed the invites, the tables, all of the really cool stuff and I’d love to make her a book of all of her awesome accomplishments. (since it might be a little odd to frame photos of save the dates and hang them in her house.)
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What a fabulous idea, Maggie. I’m totally doing that when we have kiddos. I’m still hankering to do the before and after book for our house renovations. Or, our wedding book, including scans of the little story cards people filled out about us in lieu of a guest book. People told great stories, gave cool advice, and drew fun pictures for us. Can’t wait to put them all together. Thanks! I lurve shutterfly, and of course your website(s). They make me happy on a regular basis. Thanks Maggie!
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I have four kids, the oldest of them age eight and the youngest age three. I would love to create a book about the evolution of our family through pictures from the birth of the first to the third birthday of the last.
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I would make a book about my upcoming trip to Europe!
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I would make a book about a tiny boy and his relationship with his grandfather because the boy doesn’t have a daddy but that’s ok. Because his Poppy fills the void just fine and they are inseparable as Poppy teaches the little one about love, sharing, tools, reading and the bond between two men on each end of the spectrum called life.
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I used Shutterfly to make a book about our dogs once. You’re right, it was super easy. If I win this, I’d make one for my parents, to thank for them for letting us squat on their land to build our tiny house and for everything else they do to help us out.
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Oh! I’ve been thinking about using an online service to make a book so this would be perfect (saving me lots of “research” time to find the perfect service). I’ve got so many ideas for different books… one for my son, one of my jewelry, one for my niece to help with her speech therapy, one of that trip to Europe a few years ago….
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I’d love to document my pregnancy and make it into a book for our little one. ?
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I’d make that “yearbook” I’ve been threatening to do for my family for about two years!
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I’m three months along with Baby #2 and I’d love to put together a little picture book of my pregnancy to share/give to my child. Photos of things I like, things I don’t like, weekly or monthly photos of my belly, etc.
Kids always want to know what it was like when you were pregnant with them — this would do it in a fun and visual way.
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I would make a book documenting my summer – I made a mighty *summer* list, and I’d like to be able to look at what I did without having to open up my computer to do so. This summer has been about living a little more in the moment, something I don’t usually excel at, and a lot of that is thanks to you. Thank you Maggie, for being such an inspiration. 🙂
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After 5 years living out of the country, I have spent the past summer staying with friends while I reacclimate to life in the US. I’m a single 30-something and have always lived alone. Living with a family of 4 has been a shocking and shockingly wonderful experience. I’ve introduced them to new foods (they introduce me as their personal chef), I’ve shared my yoga practice with the girls and I have given the parents a bit of freedom with their built in babysitter. Meanwhile, they’ve taught me about compromise, sharing, patience and the joy that is Friday night singalongs. I would make a book of photos of our summer together so they could know how much this time as a member of a family has meant to me even as I’m getting ready to move across the country.
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My husband and I both have families that live all over the U.S. I’d love to make a photo book for my girls with ALL of their family members along with the good memories the girls have had with each relative.
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I would love to make a keepsake book of my son’s achievements that took place in his first two years so he can see how much he’s changed. Thanks, Maggie!
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